California Auctions are Really Exciting

Let’s face it; if you are a collector of the most beautiful and rare stuff, whether it is exquisite antiques or masterful artwork, you will need to participate in the auctions to obtain the rarest items.

The really rare and wonderful things in the world are almost always sold by auction.

The auction process is not for the faint of heart, because you will be going up against others that are well- funded and maybe even more well- funded than you are when the richest of the rich want something, they will pay whatever it is necessary to get it.

The billionaires use brokers to make bids for them so they can, for the most part, remain anonymous. Every once in a while the story leaks out about who the actual bidder was that won the rare item at an extraordinary high auction price.

One example of this, is when Bill Gates, through a broker paid US $30.8 million for a set of hand written notes, called the “Codex Leicester,” made by Leonardo Da Vinci. Gates bought this notebook in 1994. He was a billionaire at the time, but still paid over thirty million for such ancient hand scribbled notes. This does seem slightly eccentric.

Auctions of the Most Rare Stuff Make History

Buying something at an auction for a price that seems outlandish is a bit about getting bragging rights and beating the other bidders. When a Van Gough painting sold for over $82.5 million at an auction in 1990, this news made world headlines. Please note that the only painting Van Gough ever sold while he was alive was one bought by his brother Theo for just the equivalent of a few dollars. Van Gough died as an insane, poor person, that never for any recognition whatsoever for his creativity while he was alive.

Sticker Shock

If the price of the Van Gough paining impresses, just look at what happened since then:

10. EDVARD MUNCH “The Scream”, painted in 1895, sold in 1992 for $119.9 million
9. GUSTAV KLIMT “Adele Bloch- bauer I”, painted in 1907, sold in 2006 for $135 million
8. ILLEM DE KOONING “Woman III”, painted in 1952-53, sold in 2006 for $137.5 million
7. JACKSON POLLOCK “Number 5, 1948”, painted in 1948, sold in 2006 for $140 million
6. Francis Bacon “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” Painted in 1969, sold in 2013 for $145 million
5. PABLO PICASSO “La Réve (The Dream)”, painted in 1932, sold in 2013 for $157.5 million
4. AMEDEO MODIGLIANI “Nu couché (reclining Nude)”, Painted in 1917-18 , sold in 2015 for $170.4 million
3. PABLO PICASSO “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”)”, painted in 1955, sold in 2015 for $179.4 million
2. PAUL CÉZANNE “The Card Players”, painted in 1892/1893, sold in 2011 for $250 million

And the highest price paid so far for a single painting is….

1. PAUL GAUGUIN “Nafea faa ipoipo? (When will you marry?)”, painted in 1892, sold in 2015 for $300 million.